DA O'Malley and "Black Lives Matter" Protesters

District Attorney O’Malley’s office should not prosecute “Black Lives Matter“ cases which come before the courts in Alameda County. She received campaign contributions from the Oakland Police Officers Association, and Oakland Police Sergeants Robert Nolan, Paul Balzouman, James Rullamas, and Oakland Police Officer Warren Young.

District Attorney O'Malley was an active and aggressive participant in Oakland Police efforts to disperse and dissolve Occupy Oakland in 2011 and 2012. She had very strong personal convictions about these assemblies and protests and used the full force of her office to coordinate with police in aggressively prosecuting Occupy Oakland Activists. Her personal feelings we’re so strong that she wrote published and editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle.

In District Attorney O’Malley’s Biennial Report for 2011 to 2012 she writes about her role in supporting the Oakland Police Department and prosecuting protesters on page 17.

“Occupy Oakland Cases In the fall of 2011, the Occupy Wall Street movement spread from its primary encampment in lower Manhattan to cities and towns all across America. Alameda County cities such as Albany, Berkeley, and Oakland were host to some of the most active and prominent Occupy chapters in the nation. It was not long, however, before protests affiliated with Occupy Oakland took a dramatic turn away from the initial spirit of the movement. Protests degenerated into destructive, chaotic riots. In an op-ed for the San Francisco Chronicle, Nancy O’Malley responded to the riots: “To protect public safety, my office will use all of the resources provided under the law. We will not give free rein to those intent on using violence against the community and our police officers.”

The report describes the prosecution of a vandal and felony violation of using force or violence to deter an officer in his duties and a misdemeanor violation of assault on a police officer. It does not acknowledge any police misconduct, the brain injury sustained by Scott Olson when hit with a less-than-lethal or other assaults on protesters by OPD. Nor does it acknowledge violations by OPD of their own crowd control policies.

While the two cases described in DA O’Malley’s 2011-2012 Biennial Report are long forgotten, the civil cases resulting from police misconduct continue to cost Oakland millions. District Attorney O’Malley received campaign contributions from 3 Oakland Police Sergeants, an Oakland Police Officer and the Oakland Police Officers Association. District Attorney O’Malley has a history of siding strongly with the Oakland Police Department during protests and assemblies. Her personal bias and the direct campaign support that she received from OPD and other police and law enforcement agencies should disqualify her from hearing cases involving Black Lives Matter civil disobedience, and Oakland Police Department brutality or misconduct cases.